Before Zohran Mamdani was mayor of New York, the Knicks sent him a cease-and-desist letter. In October 2025, still a candidate, he ran a campaign ad during the team’s season opener that showed an orange-and-blue logo reading “Zohran” where “Knicks” belonged. The team said it did not endorse him, and the ad came down two days after it aired. On the Sunday before Election Day, he watched the Knicks from Section 212 in a Josh Hart jersey. Now, less than a year on, the Garden has given him another problem.

During a recent media exchange with NBC New York, Mamdani was asked whether he expected the defending champions to repeat their title run. Crossing his fingers with all of the city’s hope, the mayor offered a witty proviso: “Come on. Hopefully at cheaper ticket prices.”

When the conversation turned to whether he would personally be in attendance at Madison Square Garden on October 20 when the franchise hoists its first championship banner in 53 years, Mamdani made it clear that even city leadership is not immune to ticket market shock.

“Brother, I do not have $2,000 ready for that ticket,” Mamdani stated directly.

When the interviewer countered by asking if he might consider settling for the relatively cheaper seat in the upper deck instead, “That’s what I’m talking about,” Mamdani replied.

The clip began circulating on social media as the Knicks’ ticketing controversy intensified. Single-game sales opened in three stages. Chase cardholders in the Knicks’ Fan First program went first on Monday, September 14, other Fan First members followed Tuesday, and the general public got access Wednesday.

That afternoon, a Section 418 seat, one of the farthest from the court, was priced at $1,039.50 on Ticketmaster for the opener against LeBron James and the Philadelphia 76ers. Seats in the 300s ran about $1,550, and the 200s topped $2,000.

PIX11 noted that those were primary-market prices set by MSG, rather than resale listings, while secondary-market tickets had already been listed for roughly $2,000 or more in August. Meanwhile, courtside seats ranged from $27,000 to $53,000. TicketData put the get-in price for the game as high as $1,408 when Fan First opened, above the get-in for any Knicks regular-season game in 2025-26.

But on Thursday, MSG Sports reversed course. Its statement cited “a mistake in our pricing,” said individual-game prices would return to last year’s levels plus an average increase of 12%, and promised refunds of the difference to anyone who had already bought. Sales, it said, would restart shortly. The company, led by executive chairman and CEO James Dolan, said its intention was never to overcharge loyal fans.

MSG declined to say how the error happened, how many purchases it touched, or how much it will refund, and Ticketmaster told Front Office Sports it does not set prices. The New York Post’s Stefan Bondy reported that a source close to the situation called it a first-time mistake and said gouging fans after a title was never the intent.

Season-ticket sales and the earlier Fan First priority sales were not affected. And while ticket prices generally rise after postseason runs, Dolan has not raised them when the Knicks miss the playoffs. Still, while the opener was pulled from Ticketmaster Thursday afternoon, tickets remained listed at the higher prices on other ticket sites.

That said, ticket costs are familiar ground for the mayor. As a candidate in September 2025, he pressed FIFA to end dynamic pricing for the World Cup, cap resale prices and reserve 15% of tickets at a discount for residents. In June, he told PIX11 that sports “should not become a luxury commodity”. And before Game 3 of the NBA Finals on June 8, he said he had paid nearly $1,000 to MSG for a standing-room ticket.

The mayor and Dolan have also clashed in public. On June 10, the planned watch party outside the Garden for Game 4 was canceled hours before tipoff amid a public dispute over added security, with Dolan blaming Mamdani and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. THE CITY reported that Dolan said Mamdani was not a real Knicks fan, while an MSG Sports statement dubbed Mamdani and Tisch “party poopers.”

The spat was still fresh eight days later, when the Knicks’ first-ever ticker-tape parade ended at City Hall. Mamdani, wearing a Knicks jersey under his suit jacket, delivered a nearly 10-minute trip through the franchise’s history, name-dropping everyone from Willis Reed and Clyde Frazier to Charles Oakley, John Starks and Patrick Ewing. Dolan followed with a much shorter message of his own: “I don’t need your vote,” he told the crowd, adding that real Knicks fans already knew what had happened.

Then came the ceremonial Keys to the City. Mamdani handed keys to players, coaches, staff and the organization’s leadership, including Dolan and his son. But the Dolans appeared notably uninterested in lingering for the photo op, with James accepting his key and shaking Mamdani’s hand from across the table rather than posing alongside him.